PHIL EVERLY OF THE EVERLY BROTHERS DIES AT 74!

Musician Phil Everly, the younger half of the Everly Brothers, died Jan. 3, 2014, in Burbank, Calif. The duo perform in this 1965 photo.
He was the younger half of the influential vocal duo and Rock and Roll Hall of Famers.

(Photo: David Redfern, Redferns)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Another Boomer icon is gone

One half of the brother duo whose harmonies sweetened ’50s and ’60s rock

Everly, 74, suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Phil Everly, one half of the brother vocal duo whose sibling harmonies sweetened ’50s and ’60s rock music, has died. He was 74.

He died Friday in Burbank of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, after a lifetime of smoking, his wife, Patti Everly, told the Los Angeles Times.

The Everly Brothers, Phil and Don, whose tight harmonies were unmistakable and unforgettable, profoundly influenced everyone from The Beatles and The Byrds to the Beach Boys and Simon & Garfunkel, as well as countless other rock, folk and country singers, starting in the late 1950s.

Phil Everly

A generation of teens grew up with their high, clarion voices blasting from car radios on Wake Up Little Susie, Bye Bye Love, Cathy’s Clown and All I Have to Do Is Dream.

Singer Linda Ronstadt, who had a big hit in 1975 with When Will I Be Loved, which Phil wrote, and who herself grew up in Tucson singing with her siblings, told the L.A. Times there’s nothing like vocals produced by family.

“The information of your DNA is carried in your voice, and you can get a sound (with family) that you never get with someone who’s not blood-related to you,” she said. “And they were both such good singers — they were one of the foundations, one of the cornerstones of the new rock ‘n’ roll sound.”

Phil and Don Everly sing some of their hits in August 1997 at the 10th annual Everly Brothers Homecoming concert in Central City, Ky.(Photo: Suzanne Feliciano, AP)

In October, Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong and jazz-pop singer Norah Jonesreleased a tribute album, Foreverly. Armstrong was full of admiration for the brothers.

The Everly harmonies “are so immaculate,” Armstrong told USA TODAY. “And that record (the duo’s second album, Songs Our Daddy Taught Us) was pretty daring at the time. A lot of other rock guys were trying to go pop. Chuck Berry had a string of big hits, and the same with Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis. And here the Everlys were playing these torch songs and murder ballads. For them to do something so dark and angelic was appealing to me.”

The duo was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

On Twitter, boomers mourned, or at least boomers with Twitter accounts. Presidential historian Michael Beschloss tweeted a concert poster from 50 years ago in Englandwhere the Everly Brothers got top billing over the Rolling Stones.

Phillip Everly was born on Jan. 19, 1939, in Chicago, the son of two country musicians, Ike and Margaret Everly. The family was a traveling act, and the brothers started performing together on the family radio show.

Bye Bye Love was their breakthrough hit, in 1957, and their first million-seller. Also in 1957, Wake Up Little Susie, about two teenagers falling asleep at the drive-in theater and waking after curfew, was banned in Boston for its slightly suggestive lyrics. It went to No. 1.

In addition to his wife, Everly is survived by his brother, who will be 77 in February; their mother, Margaret; sons Jason and Chris; and two granddaughters.